Warming Winter Recipes

Soups are one of the best ways to continue getting enough nutrients in winter, when salads and lighter vegetable dishes lose their appeal in favour of warm, hearty meals. The grid below offers thousands of variations on one basic soup recipe, so you will never run out of ideas.

Start with a base layer:

1 onion or 1 leek finely chopped

2 sticks of celery (finely chopped)

2 carrots (roughly chopped)

All thrown into a pan with some olive oil and sweated on a medium heat until soft and sweet.

Then choose from the following:

Herbs

Spices

Main body

Backing flavour

Bulk it up

Finishing touches

Thyme (a few sprigs)

Cumin seeds

Butternut squash

Spinach (add at the end)

Quinoa (cooked)

Roasted seeds

Rosemary (a couple of sprigs)

Coriander seeds

Sweet potato

Broccoli

Drained beans

Yoghurt

Sage (10 leaves)

Cardamom pods (3)

Peas

Peas

Lentils (cooked)

tahini

Bay (3 leaves)

Cinnamon stick (1/2)

Celeriac

Broad beans

Torn-up bread

Toasted nuts

Oregano (a few sprigs)

Mustard seeds

Parsnips

Artichoke

Small/ smashed pasta

Croutons

Basil stalks

Smoked paprika

Tomatoes

Asparagus

Brown rice (cooked)

Chopped herbs

Coriander stalks

Dried chilli flakes

Carrots

broken up noodles

Herb/ truffle oil

Add the herbs and sizzle for a couple of minutes to release their flavour

Add a few handfuls of washed, podded/chopped veg and simmer for 5 more minutes

(optional), add just before soup is ready to eat

Top with 1-2 of the options + a drizzle of olive oil

There are a wealth of types of bread that you can experiment with pairing with your soups – crackers, rye bread, sourdough and even cheese twists. The following recipe for Welsh Rarebit is like a posh cheese on toast with much more flavour. It does great to bulk up soup if you’re feeling particularly hungry and is also handy to use up any leftover alcohol from the night before.